News
Renewed Memorandum of Understanding with ANT
10 March 2022
We renewed our Memorandum of Understanding with the National Land Agency (ANT), to continue providing land administration in an efficient, participatory and transparent manner!
Kadaster signed, together with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the National Land Agency, a bilateral cooperation program that seeks to strengthen and consolidate cooperation in the areas of rural development as well as share good practices in terms of efficiency in the collection of property and cadastral information. The program contemplates strengthening the processes of access and formalization of rural property at the national level in accordance with the provisions of the Colombian legal framework on land, management of the social ordering of rural property, exchange of experiences and information, validation and exchange of technologies and successful experiences that can be adapted.
FFP course with Arhuaco youth
07 March 2022
This week we trained young Arhuacos with innovative technologies that allowed them to take ownership of their territory with the help of Authorities and Elders from the Gunmaku community in Aracataca, Magdalena. We will continue to train more young people from other indigenous communities in the use of GPS and equipment, which allow them to get to know and measure their territory.
Training SENA in Sumapaz
18 February 2022
Today we finished our FFP training for SENA instructors!
Twenty instructors from different SENA regions accompanied us to the Vereda Tunal Alto (Sumapaz) to receive training in the Fit for Purpose methodology. In this training we learned about the FFP processes, we measured properties, we interacted with the community and the young volunteers, we held workshops and we enjoyed the beautiful landscapes.
FFP Capacity Building SENA
11 February 2022
Yesterday and today we started our virtual training to train SENA instructors in the innovative methodology for Fit For Purpose (FFP) land administration, in the company of experts from the District University, Swiss lands, Kadaster International, University of Twente. The following week we will be applying FFP in Sumapaz. Many thanks to our teachers and participants.
Meeting with the Arhuaco community on land administration
03 February 2022
We continue to empower communities on land administration issues with the Fit for Purpose methodology, which is why we met with the Minister of Agriculture and delegates from the Ministry of the Environment, ANT and other entities to generate joint work plans that allow youth of the Arhuaco people to continue appropriating their territory and conserving the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
Data collection in the Teófila Reserve
14 December 2021
Within the framework of our L@S project, we trained the Coreguajes and Makaguajes indigenous communities in the collection of spatial information with Open Source software, in order to map their crops, sacred sites and sites of cultural interest, homes, among others. This information allows ICCO Cooperation to establish economic empowerment mechanisms in the community. We continue working on the empowerment of the territory with the indigenous communities in the country.
Book: Catastro Multipropósito como herramienta de construcción de Paz
01 December 2021
The book Catastro Multipropósito como herramienta de construcción de Paz (Multipurpose Land Registry as a Peacebuilding Tool), published by the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, was recently published. With a chapter on the Fit-for-Purpose approach and the applied pilots in Colombia. Download the book (in Spanish) here.
Amazon Conservation Team and Kadaster International join efforts to improve land administration of Colombian indigenous communities.
09 November 2021
With a Memorandum of Understanding that will last for three years, the organizations pledged to defend the territories of the communities and accompany them in the processes of legalization, expansion and conflict resolution on their lands.
Read everything about the MoU: Amazon Conservation Team y Kadaster International unen esfuerzos para mejorar la administración de tierras de comunidades indígenas
Institutional Cooperation with ANT and FAO in la Mohana, Ciénaga
27 October 2021
Visit to la Teófila, Caquetá
13 September 2021
As part of the LAND-at-scale project which purpose is to provide socio-economic, environmental and land tenure security support in Indigenous and traditional communities, in August 2021 the Kadaster team, in cooperation with ICCO and Tropenbos, made a visit to the La Teófila reserve in the municipality of Solano, Caquetá. During this visit, the Kadaster team trained the Koreguaje and Makaguaje communities in the application of the Fit-for-Purpose methodology in the field, which helps the communities to define and protect the boundaries of their ancestral lands.
Final Report Land in Peace I
01 June 2021
The final report of the first phase of the Land in Peace project has been published!
In December 2020 we completed the first phase of Land in Peace and we are now working on the second phase of the project. That is why we share with you the final report of the first three years of the Tierra en Paz project. The Spanish readers among us can read about our progress and contributions to the implementation of the Fit-for-Purpose approach in land administration in Colombia from 2017 to 2020 in this report.
Team publishes article in LAND
07 April 2021
The Land in Peace team has published an article about the experiences in the indigenous reserves in Cumaribo! The article Fit-For-Purpose Applications in Colombia: Defining Land Boundary Conflicts between Indigenous Sikuani and Neighbouring Settler Farmers, describes the situation of the land boundaries in the reserves in Cumaribo, and how FFP can support the clarification and resolution of conflicts of boundaries with neighbouring settler farmers.
The article is part of the special issue Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration-Providing Secure Land Rights at Scale of the LAND magazine, where you can also find other articles about the FFP land administration approach. For example, the publication about FFP for for forest preservation in Brazil.
226 families in Cumaribo, Vichada receive their land title
17 March 2021
226 families, who after living on their urban lots for many years, are today recognized as legitimate owners of their homes by obtaining the official property in a virtual ceremony.
This land titling event has been made possible thanks to a strategic cooperation between SNR, the Cumaribo Municipality, Kadaster, the Dutch Embassy, IGAC, and the Vichada Government and is the second ceremonie where property titles in this municipality are handed out. In August 2020, the first 20 families have received their title.
“We, the beneficiaries, feel immensely grateful; you cannot imagine the happiness we feel for having our titles in our hands and the improvement that this represents for our children. Look how much we have to fight and how many people would like to have the opportunity that we had to receive these titles, let’s take advantage of it, let’s value it, let’s take care of it, we are really very lucky .”
Mini documentary: The Road to an Innovative Land Administration
05 March 2021
Kadaster published this mini documentary on the progress, experiences and challenges of Kadaster's Land in Peace project in Colombia. With the Agustín Codazzi Geographical Institute (IGAC), the National Land Agency (ANT) and the Superintendency of Notaries and Registry (SNR).
Indigenous reserve Guaco Alto y Guaco Bajo, Cumaribo.
Picture: Liliana Merizalde
Article: Land tenure and sustainable economic empowerment in Colombia
04 March 2021
Effective land management is essential for agricultural productivity and sustainable rural development. However, how does this work in practice? How does land tenure security help people to improve their living conditions in an environmentally sustainable way? In a new project, Kadaster will be exploring these links at ground level.
Read the full article in Abroad, Kadaster's online magazine.
Pictures Fieldwork Guaco Alto y Guaco Bajo
02 December 2020
A few weeks ago, Kadaster's Tierra en Paz team and the Agustín Codazzi Geographical Institute - IGAC team implemented the Fit for Purpose for land administration methodology in the indigenous reserve Guaco Alto y Guaco Bajo, located in two departments Guainía and Vichada.
Thanks to the participation of the indigenous leaders, a nice and efficient fieldwork has been carried out.
Fotos de: Liliana Merizalde
Presentation Semana Geomática
25 November 2020
Our colleague Mathilde Molendijk participated in the La Semana Geomática (the geomatic week) organized by the Agustín Codazzi Geographical Institute - IGAC. You can watch her presentation through the following link: https://fb.watch/1-BVgcC-Qv/
Visit to Indigenous Reserve Guaco Alto with IGAC
15 November 2020
As part of support to IGAC’s work to update Cumaribo’s cadastre, Kadaster accompanied IGAC on a visit to the Guaco Alto and Guaco Bajo indigenous reserve. After a first visit, where a socialization with the captains was held, a team mission was organized to measure the boundaries of the reserve. The team, existing of IGAC and Kadaster members traveled by boat to the reserve from the municipality Barrancominas , which is the municipality south of Cumaribo. In the reserve, points were measured to define the location of a piece of land that the community is requesting, and also spatial information of farms within the reserve was collected.
Contribution to cadastral process in Cumaribo
25 September 2020
From September 3 to 25, a commission was held to the municipality of Cumaribo, Vichada in cooperation with the Geographical Institute Agustín Codazzi - IGAC.
IGAC is currently updating the cadastre of the municipality Cumaribo and as part of the memorandum of understanding, the Tierra en Paz team accompanied the group that is working in the indigenous reserves to identify constructions and boundaries in three of the 34 indigenous reserves of Cumaribo. An efficient data collection method for indigenous reservations was developed by applying the Fit for Purpose methodology in the field. This method can be used for future work in other municipalities.
Article: Land Ownership, Simplified
05 November 2020
A nice article about the Land in Peace project in GeoConnexion International Magazine has been published, where Mary Jo Wagner writes about the pilot experiences in Vista Hermosa, Apartadó and Cumaribo and the use of GNSS devices for the mapping of land.
FFP Webinars organized by the Universidad Distrital
24 September 2020
Entrega de los primeros títulos de propiedad en Cumaribo, Vichada
10 August 2020
20 Cumaribenses have received their land property title during a ceremony at the Mayor's Office of Cumaribo with virtual assistants from Bogotá and the Netherlands. The 20 beneficiaries are the first of 300 families to receive their title in the coming weeks.
During this event, the Presidential Counselor, the Director of IGAC, the Director of SNR, the Ambassador of the Netherlands and the Government of Vichada gave their words of congratulations to the new owners.
The titles are the result of a cooperation between the Colombian state and the Netherlands where the Fit for Purpose methodology was applied to collect the information of the beneficiaries and with that speed up the titling process.
Beneficiaries in Apartadó receiving their title
12 August 2020
Several titles have been handed out by ANT in Apartadó to beneficiaries of the Fit for Purpose pilot in the veredas La Balsa, El Tigre and La Linda. Due to the current covid situation in Colombia no ceremony could be organized, but many farmers did receive their title.
“Tener el título de un terreno es muy importante para la población. Y dios quiera que estos 300 beneficiarios sean solamente el inicio de toda la población que necesita tener los títulos de su terreno propio. Porque no hay nada más importante que tener una propiedad titulada a decir esto es mío pero legalmente no me pertenece. Muchísimas gracias.
”
Encuentro virtual IGAC y Embajada de los Países Bajos
29 July 2020
“International cooperation is fundamental.
”
On July 29 the Ambassador of the Netherlands Jeroen Roodenburg and the Director of IGAC Olga Lucia López had a meeting on how cadastral management contributes to the construction of peace. The meeting was publicly visible on Facebook Live. It was a successful event, thanks to the 170 live spectators and to the interesting questions. The director and ambassador spoke in detail about the Land in Peace project and the Fit for Purpose methodology.
Blog: Use of Esri's Collector for Land Administration in Colombia
26 May 2020
Esri has been supporting the Land in Peace project from the beginning. Their mobile Collector is an application that is used during the fieldwork and facilitates the collection of spatial and legal data in an integrated way. Based on the experiences of this project, the app has been further developed to optimize the data collection. Read everything about these developments in Esri’s blog on their website.
Memorando de Entendimiento entre IGAC y los Países Bajos
28 April 2020
The objective of this agreement is to offer a framework for cooperation on land administration issues, including the development of a faster, more affordable, transparent and participatory cadastral management, thanks to the Fit-for-Purpose methodology (suitable for the purpose), that allows progress in the fulfillment of the peace agreement.
The ambassador of the Netherlands, Jeroen Roodenburg, the director of the Agustín Codazzi Geographical Institute (IGAC), Olga Lucía López, and the director of the Kadaster Frank Tierolff signed a memorandum of understanding this Tuesday, which will last for two years, thanks to which a technical cooperation between the two governments will continue, allowing an efficient and participatory cadastral update, facilitating the implementation of the land policy.
Published: Annual Report 2019
10 June 2020
Last year, our Land In Peace team worked hard in Colombia: this annual report gives an elaborate overview of our project developments, our achievements and challenges. On page 5 till 7 you can find a summary list of the highlights of last year. We have started to work in a new pilot area in Cumaribo, had various high level meetings on presidencial level and with the indigenous community in Santa Teresita, and initiated new cooperations with - among others - Colombia's national vocational training institute SENA and the Externado University. From page 13 on you can read all our project activities and results. Page 39 and 40 contain our plans for this year. Despite the COVID-19 crisis we continue working in land rights in a transparent, participative and rapid way.
This agreement is materialized in a pilot project in the rural and urban areas of the municipality of Cumaribo (Vichada), where the Fit-for-Purpose methodology will be used to carry out the cadastral management of the properties with a multipurpose approach . This methodology is faster, more affordable, participatory and transparent, and through it a greater and better dialogue on property boundaries has been fostered among the population, including indigenous communities.
“One of the most important points of the peace agreement is that of the Integrated Rural Reform, where issues such as the implementation of the multipurpose cadastre and the land registry are key. The experts of the Netherlands are already supporting Colombia to achieve this goal and we are ready to continue this collaboration. For this reason, a Memorandum of Understanding with the IGAC will allow us to replicate in other municipalities the work that we are currently doing, ”said Ambassador Roodenburg.
For her part, the director López indicated that: “Updated cadastral information is key to the peace process, as it is a valuable input to regularize land ownership, mitigate the conflict over it and promote the development of the regions. For this reason, we encourage the cooperation with the Netherlands, since the Fit-for-Purpose methodology contributes to the fulfillment of the goals of the National Development Plan ‘Pacto por Colombia, pacto por la equidad’ ”.
The Embassy of the Netherlands, Kadaster and IGAC, as part of the agreement, will endeavor to promote the following issues that have been prioritized in terms of cooperation: cadastral land management; training programs, symposia, and seminars on national policies around the aforementioned topics; exchange of experiences and information, and validation and exchange of technologies and successful experiences that can be adapted.
Noticias Uno broadcasts about our project
22 February 2020
Elaborated news report on our project at Colombian television channel Noticias Uno in Spanish (from 27”11 min).
Esri Blog: How Mapping Land Rights Advances Peace
21 January 2020
‘How Mapping Land Rights Advances Peace’ is the title of a blog published on the website of ESRI USA. ESRI is a renowned supplier of geographic information systems (GIS). We work in close cooperation with ESRI Colombia for the technical support of our app. Read the entire blog via this link.